The August EU Meta - data analysis

[Drlambda]

Hi. Ever since early August, Rosqo, Spinning and me have been logging all our PVP battles on the EU meta. As we all battle quite a bit, we got a bit over 500 battles logged for this month. So, without further ado, i'll give you the top 30 of pets used in PVP battles against us.

1. Bone Serpent - 98 unique / 82 matches (6,3% of pets, 15,9% of teams)
2. Teroclaw Hatchling - 55/54 (3,5%, 10,5%)
3. Unborn Val'kyr - 53/52 (3,4%, 10,0%)
4. Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling - 50/39 (3,2%, 7,6%)
5. Anubisath Idol - 39/39 (2,5%, 7,6%)
6. Iron Starlette - 31/28 (2%, 5,4%)
7. Magma Rageling - 30/28 (1,9%, 5,4%)
8. Nexus Whelpling - 27/17 (1,7%, 3,3%)
9. Wicked Soul - 25/25 (1,6%, 4,8%)
10. Rabbit - 22/21 (1,4%, 4,1%)
11. Twilight - 21/21 (1,4%, 4,1%)
11. Fiendish Imp - 21/21 (1,4%, 4,1%)
13. Ghastly Kid - 20/20 (1,3%, 3,9%)
14. Fel Flame - 17/17 (1,1%, 3,3%)
15. Molten Corgi - 15/15 (1%, 2,9%)
15. Kun-Lai Runt - 15/13 (1%, 2,5%)
15. Vengeful Porcupette - 15/15 (1%, 2,9%)
15. Graves - 15/15 (1%, 2,9%)
19. Lil' XT- 14/14 (0,9%, 2,7%)
19. Blackfuse Bombling - 14/14 (0,9%, 2,7%)
19. Jademist Dancer - 14/14 (0,9%, 2,7%)
19. Dread Hatchling - 14/14 (0,9%, 2,7%)
23. Son of Sethe - 13/13 (0,8%, 2,5%)
24. Direhorn Runt - 12/12 (0,8%, 2,2%)
24. Infinite Whelpling - 12/12 (0,8%, 2,2%)
24. Sunborne Val'kyr - 12/12 (0,8%, 2,2%)
27. Zandalari Anklerender - 11/11 (0,7%, 2,1%)
27. Blossoming Ancient - 11/11 (0,7%, 2,1%)
27. Chrominius - 11/11 (0,7%, 2,1%)
27. Northern Hawk Owl - 11/11 (0,7%, 2,1%)

Note: We consolidated all Rabbits and Moths. There still weren't enough Moths to hit top 30. We might want to consolidate Direhorns, Darkness birds etc in the future, but didn't for this list.

What do we make out of it? Bone Serpent is HEAVILY overrepresented with about double the amount of the next pets on the list. It's also a pet that is very likely to appear in multiples, with Nexus Whelpling and Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling being other popular choices. Also of note should be that the number of Bone Serpents actually lowered significantly during critter week. For the first two weeks of logging, they we're actually on between 20-25% of all teams.

Another fact that should be taken into consideration is that Twilight was released during our logging time, so Twilight is very likely a statistical anomaly. This makes Twilight by far the most-played "paid" pet, with the only other paid pet on the list being Blossoming Ancient with 11 appearances.

The list drops off rather quickly after rank 5 and another time after rank 13. Only 4 pets appeared more than 50 times. Bone Serpent and Teroclaw Hatchling are commonly known as "tier 0" pets in this meta, and Unborn Val'kyr is by far the easiest-to-acquire pet with probably the best ability in PVP right now: Haunt.

I was surprised to see that many MPDs, but even after their nerf, they're still very good with both an AOE and a Decoy on reasonably fast speed. I still wouldn't put them in the top 5 powerful pets.

About Haunt, it's obvious that it's still one of the most important abilities in PVP, putting all three Haunters into the top 13.

Overall, even with the obviously problematic pets, you can say that the meta became way more diverse. We see pretty much every racial within the top 30, even though Undead and Mechanicals are slightly overrepresented, with Magical pets being notably absent.

PS: Are you interested in the complete data? We logged a total of over 300 different pets, but i have some smaller errors in my list that i'd have to fix before it would be ready for release.
PPS: We also recorded our wins and losses, but i don't think it would be too interesting to release that data. Short facts: Rosqo logged 77% wins, Spinning 75% and i logged 70%. The best pets from the top 30 against us were in this order: Direhorn Runt (75% losses), Fiendish Imp (57% losses), Vengeful Porcupette (46% losses.)

[Rosqo]

Can you reverse it to see what pets we used the most?

Edit I hope I didn't just play op pets the whole time

[Drlambda]

Can you reverse it to see what pets we used the most?

Edit I hope I didn't just play op pets the whole time

I could, would take me like an hour or two to set up a counter. Maybe tomorrow.

[Paladance]

PS: Are you interested in the complete data? We logged a total of over 300 different pets, but i have some smaller errors in my list that i'd have to fix before it would be ready for release.

Perhaps I'm not the only one who wonders if she was caught here. But I don't think any of pets I used didn't repeat.

Nice job, guys! And great to see the Blancient isn't that much high. Do so few of people have a Broot?

[Rosqo]

The pet event had a considerable impact on my data as I played around 100-120 matches during it. Since the event has ended I've faced a lot more ba's unfortunatley.

[Drlambda]

Nice job, guys! And great to see the Blancient isn't that much high. Do so few of people have a Broot?

I can only speak for myself, and i literally haven't seen a single Broot in any battle. Same pretty much is true for all order hall pets, i saw Ban-Fu twice and maybe one or two of the DK broodlings once.

[Gráinne]

Thanks for taking the time, guys!

I recorded 504 battles in Jan/Feb 2016, during the Graves meta. I put these into the same format, for comparison of how the meta has changed after the Legion nerfs and changes:

1. Bone Serpent - 128/118 (8.5 /23.4)
2. Graves - 115/115 (7.6 /22.8)
3. MPD - 77/77 (5.1 /15.3)
4. FoA - 50/50 (3.3 /9.9)
5. Weeb - 49/39 (3.2 /7.7)
6. Iron Starlette - 40/40 (2.6 /7.9)
7. Valk - 36/36 (2.4 /7.1)
8. Chrominius - 30/30 (2.0 /6.0)
9. Ghastly Kid - 29/29 (1.9 /5.8)
10. Foss. Hatch. - 27/27 (1.8 /5.4)
11. Teroclaw Hatchling - 24/24 (1.6 /4.8)
12. Anubisath Idol - 21/21 (1.4 /4.2)
13. Fox - 20/20 (1.3 /4.0)
13. Frostwolf Ghostpup - 20/20 (1.3 /4.0)
15. Lil' Bling - 19/19 (1.3 /3.8)
15. Fiendish Imp - 19/19 (1.3 /3.8)
17. Rabbit - 16/16 (1.1 /3.2)
18. PWS - 15/15 (1.0 /3.0)
19. Crusher - 14/14 (0.9 /2.8)
20. Nexus Whelpling - 13/13 (0.9 /2.6)
20. Hopling - 13/13 (0.9 /2.6)
22. Fel Flame - 12/12 (0.8 /2.4)
23. Son of Sethe - 11/11 (0.7 /2.2)
23. Scourged Whelpling - 11/11 (0.7 /2.2)
23. EPW - 11/11 (0.7 /2.2)
23. Darkmoon Monkey - 11/11 (0.7 /2.2)
27. Spawn of G'nathus - 10/10 (0.7 /2.0)
27. Molten Corgi - 10/10 (0.7 /2.0)
27. Kun-Lai Runt - 10/10 (0.7 /2.0)
27. Dread Hatchling - 10/10 (0.7 /2.0)

I was pretty sure, BTW, that the Hoplings were all the same player, and the Monkeys were all from the same player, though not necessarily the same who used the Hoplings. I always looked forward to my matches against the Hopling owner - he was good.

Here also, Moths didn't quite make the cut. Added together, they ranked 31st.

There was one Pet Battle Week event during the collection of these too.

[Drlambda]

Thanks for taking the time, guys!

I recorded 504 battles in Jan/Feb 2016, during the Graves meta. I put these into the same format, for comparison of how the meta has changed after the Legion nerfs and changes:

1. Bone Serpent - 128/118 (8.5 /23.4)
2. Graves - 115/115 (7.6 /22.8)
3. MPD - 77/77 (5.1 /15.3)
4. FoA - 50/50 (3.3 /9.9)
5. Weeb - 49/39 (3.2 /7.7)
6. Iron Starlette - 40/40 (2.6 /7.9)
7. Valk - 36/36 (2.4 /7.1)
8. Chrominius - 30/30 (2.0 /6.0)
9. Ghastly Kid - 29/29 (1.9 /5.8)
10. Foss. Hatch. - 27/27 (1.8 /5.4)
11. Teroclaw Hatchling - 24/24 (1.6 /4.8)
12. Anubisath Idol - 21/21 (1.4 /4.2)
13. Fox - 20/20 (1.3 /4.0)
13. Frostwolf Ghostpup - 20/20 (1.3 /4.0)
15. Lil' Bling - 19/19 (1.3 /3.8)
15. Fiendish Imp - 19/19 (1.3 /3.8)
17. Rabbit - 16/16 (1.1 /3.2)
18. PWS - 15/15 (1.0 /3.0)
19. Crusher - 14/14 (0.9 /2.8)
20. Nexus Whelpling - 13/13 (0.9 /2.6)
20. Hopling - 13/13 (0.9 /2.6)
22. Fel Flame - 12/12 (0.8 /2.4)
23. Son of Sethe - 11/11 (0.7 /2.2)
23. Scourged Whelpling - 11/11 (0.7 /2.2)
23. EPW - 11/11 (0.7 /2.2)
23. Darkmoon Monkey - 11/11 (0.7 /2.2)
27. Spawn of G'nathus - 10/10 (0.7 /2.0)
27. Molten Corgi - 10/10 (0.7 /2.0)
27. Kun-Lai Runt - 10/10 (0.7 /2.0)
27. Dread Hatchling - 10/10 (0.7 /2.0)

I was pretty sure, BTW, that the Hoplings were all the same player, and the Monkeys were all from the same player, though not necessarily the same who used the Hoplings. I always looked forward to my matches against the Hopling owner - he was good.

Here also, Moths didn't quite make the cut. Added together, they ranked 31st.

There was one Pet Battle Week event during the collection of these too.

Thanks for your list, it's quite an interesting comparison, especially considering the dominance of the top pets and some pets that fell way out of the list over the last 18 months, like Weeb / FoA.

About the Hopling/Monkey situation, we had a similar thing happening early during our logs where i logged more than the others. I have a guy in my battlegroup that basically always plays Bleakwater Jelly / Court Scribe / Santa's Little Helper or a variation thereof and queued a lot. Because of that, for a while we had those three pets within the top 30 even though they weren't played alot outside of that one team. They dropped out of there when Rosqo added his logs, but they're still within the top 50.